"Try to focus on the playoffs"
I can promise you they were insanely focused on the playoffs this year. It sounds nice, but what you're saying doesn't really hold any weight.
Sometimes you just get unlucky. They were the best team in the league but had some untimely injuries (which is being widely ignored) and ran into a hot team.
If I'm the GM going into next year, I don't overreact. I keep my dominant core, add some pieces that make sense considering what happened this year, and head into next year's playoffs hoping for a better outcome.
Tampa's window is still insanely open.
I agree with you that they were very focused on the playoffs and saying “pace yourself through the regular season” is silly and pretty meaningless.
Having said that, this loss wasn’t just bad luck. Losing to a lower seed in a closeish series is bad luck. They got absolutely stomped for nearly the entire thing start to finish. Last night, the fourth time they played this same team and should have had some idea of what to do, they looked absolutely hopeless for most of the first - like they were from a different league. Couldn’t make a pass, couldn't leave the zone - they had one sequence where one forechecker beat 3 bolts to the puck back to back to back. That’s not bad luck.
At the very least they should fire cooper and get a new coach. He’s not able to get them ready to play unless it’s a meaningless game against a team that backs up and lets them play pond hockey.
I’d also look to dump miller yesterday and clear out the dinosaurs on D. Add guys who are hard to play against and hold teammates accountable. Also I really doubt Stamkos is a capable captain off the ice but stripping him would be a fiasco